POLICE chiefs have been ordered to return £165,000 to a Russian-born businessman.

North Wales Police will hand $300,000 to Eugene Kogan after seizing the cash from him as he left a Colwyn Bay bank before a diamond deal in May 2005.

Mr Kogan, 45, of Brackley Avenue, who withdrew the money to buy diamonds in Sierra Leone, had maintained that the cash was legitimately in his possession. He has never been charged with any offence and insisted that it was a “perfectly proper” new business venture.

And at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday, police did not oppose the return of the cash during a disposal hearing under the Police Property Act.

Mr Kogan, who is involved in the sale of aircraft parts and has lived in North Wales for 17 years, told district judge Andrew Shaw the arrest had led to his security clearance being suspended by the Russian government.

He was anxious that any impression of wrongdoing created by the case should be dismissed. In January the force dropped a bid to confiscate the cash but the district judge accepted that officers acted properly in seizing the money and making inquiries.

Mr Kogan’s wife Marina is a marketing manager and their daughter is studying classics at Oxford university.

The Kogans’ solicitor Richard Williams said the case had caused “almost two years of significant concern” to them.

After the hearing, Mrs Kogan said: “This has gone on far too long. We assisted and gave them all the information from day one.”